“It will be developed near the airport”… Man in his 70s on charges of 500 million won loan fraud not indicted

Plaintiff: “I borrowed 520 million won in my name, but I don’t know what kind of land I bought.”
Prosecutors “The suspect actually used the loan to purchase the land… there was no intention to deceive.”

A man in his 70s who was sent on charges of obtaining a loan of 500 million won in the name of an acquaintance by deceiving him into thinking that he could make a lot of money by investing in a development site near the airport was acquitted by the prosecution.

On the 20th of last month, the Busan District Prosecutors' Office Western Branch decided not to indict Mr. A, who is in his 70s, and is suspected of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud).

In July 2016, Mr. A was accused of using the loan for his personal use after tricking his acquaintance B into obtaining a loan of 520 million won in Mr. B’s name by telling him, ‘Buy land near the airport because it will be developed.’ Mr. B filed a complaint to the police when Mr. A did not provide information about the land he wanted to purchase and did not even pay the loan interest.

Mr. A completely denied the charges. It is true that he proposed to purchase the land, but he claimed that there was a mutual agreement to take out a loan in the name of the complainant and that the loan was made with the consent of the complainant. Mr. A emphasized, “I actually purchased the land, but the development was canceled and I did not make any profit, and there was no intention to deceive the plaintiff from the beginning.”

The prosecution believed that Mr. A was not guilty. The prosecution explained the reason for non-indictment by saying, “For the charges to be acknowledged, it must be confirmed that the money received from the complainant was used for something other than purchasing land. Considering that the suspect used the loan money to actually purchase land, it is difficult to conclude that he stole the money by deceiving the complainant.”

Attorney Kim Young-heum of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A, said, “We delved into the legal point that the client cannot be punished for fraud simply because the investment return was not as expected,” and added, “We were able to obtain a good result by presenting objective financial data proving that the client actually used the loan to purchase land, and by revealing that there were actual development favorable factors in the area, persuading the client that this case was nothing more than a civil settlement issue and not a criminal deception.”

Reporter Kim Hee-guk kukie@kookje.co.kr

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"It will be developed near the airport"... Man in his 70s on charges of 500 million won loan fraud not indicted (link)